National Academy of Agriculture:“We need a single text for the climate”

In Bologna, conference dedicated to the restoration of the territory in the centenary of Arrigo Serpieri's forestry law

BOLOGNA – A single text against the effects of climate change and hydrogeological instability, to protect the environment and the territory, in particular the mountains, which is "above everything". The proposal was launched Giorgio Cantelli Forti, president of the National Academy of Agriculture, this morning in Bologna at the conference dedicated to the restoration of the territory in the centenary of Arrigo Serpieri's forestry law.“We certainly need an adaptation of the current situation - claims Cantelli Forti - but this must not happen by sector. All interlocutors and professionals must sit around a table to ultimately contribute to having a new reform of the territory and the environment, which also includes i funds necessary for prevention".The rules and information "are there today - continues the president of the Academy - we should put all this in an organic system", where all the subjects involved agree on "a common denominator, above the various sectors, of which they accept the benefits but also the sacrifices."

In this sense, claims Cantelli Forti, “a single regulatory text that can be above everything, because We are risking our future and that of our children, I would see it as a clear solution in its application, to avoid rules that conflict with each other".In short, the president reiterates, "it is time for the various segments of society to get around a table to have legislation on the environment that is above all else".Hydrogeological instability, states Cantelli Forti, "is also a consequence of incorrect human behaviour".Therefore “restoring places is certainly important, but we must work first on prevention.That is, ensuring that there is knowledge of the problems and attention to behaviors."

After the war, underlines the president of the National Academy of Agriculture, "the country's economic needs have sometimes forced us to behave too hastily and there hasn't been time to reflect. Today we need to think, it is useless to talk about climate change if we do not influence urban and agricultural behavior through very specific rules and with a view to recovering the mountains, where it is necessary to rebuild an economy".Mountains and plains, moreover, "are inseparable - states Cantelli Forti - and if this is forgotten it leads to dramatic consequences, as we have seen. It is therefore important to experience the mountains and the hand of man, under public guidance, is fundamental for cleaning the woods and maintaining the flow of water“.Today's conference was also an opportunity to present a volume dedicated to Arrigo Serpieri, 100 years after the agrarian reform law.“It's a small breviary - explains Cantelli Forti - a 'Manual of young marmots' for the care of the territory, because its policy is still very relevant today“.

ANBI:“10,000 INVASIONS BY 2030, GOVERNMENT WILL FINANCE OUR PLAN“

A “very ambitious” plan with which to implement 10,000 small and medium-sized reservoirs throughout Italy by 2030, as a tool against hydrogeological instability and to combat the effects of climate change.The national association of reclamation consortia proposed it, making it "available to the Government to finance and implement it".The general director of Anbi, Massimo Gargano, spoke about the project this morning in Bologna at the conference organized by the National Assembly of Agriculture.

“The Pnrr financed a series of works that already existed - underlines Gargano, speaking to 'Dire' - so we made the existing ones more efficient. Today we have another type of problem, that is, the rapid repetition of a series of events that cause damage to people, things and economic activities.“.Climate change, continues the director of Anbi, “is telling us that we must activate policies that cannot only be adaptation or mitigation.Because there is zero risk."We therefore need "above all a prevention measure".For this reason the reclamation consortia have "conceived and concretely made available to the country a plan that by 2030 will create 10,000 small and medium-sized reservoirs throughout Italy, not in concrete - specifies Gargano - but all capable of collecting excess water to make it available when it is missing."These are "multifunctional lakes, capable of providing drinking water, after it has been treated, and producing energy with floating photovoltaic and hydroelectric power", but also useful for combating subsidence and the salt wedge and for providing water to 'agri-food.

“This is a very ambitious project - admits the director of Anbi - of these 10,000 reservoirs, 400 are already immediately ready for construction. We offer them to the Government so that they can be financed and implemented as a prevention measure to combat hydrogeological instability and allow this country to no longer declare a state of emergency“.

The plan, underlines Gargano, “cannot be achieved in a year.So the resources, even if many are needed, are spread over time.And they are certainly fewer resources than those we invest every year to manage emergencies and damages.Last year we spent six billion on agriculture and 3.3 billion on disruption.It is a preventative challenge that allows us to save resources and maintain the area in its great beauty."In parallel, maintains the director of the Anbi, "it is absolutely necessary to really forcefully invite people to imagine a long-term European plan to combat hydrogeological instability and drought".Gargano then highlights one of Italy's evils.“Our vision of the future stops at declarations of a state of calamity – he states – there is no idea of ​​development. Every day we build 24 hectares just to make houses.It is a culture, that of concrete, which no longer has any reason to exist because it generates the abandonment of the ridges and a great fragility of the territory".At the same time, it produces "excessive human pressure" for example on the coast, with water and salt wedge difficulties.“This country must change its approach - insists the director of the Anbi - we do not have a culture of prevention.And we spend a mountain of resources on damage restoration.We need an extraordinary maintenance plan and we need to change the development paradigm, otherwise we are playing this game only from an emergency perspective and not from a prevention perspective."

PALMIERI:“WE NEED AN EXTRAORDINARY FOREST MAINTENANCE PLAN“

Italy needs a "large extraordinary maintenance plan" for woods and forests, evaluating incentives for those who manage the heritage and the use of fiscal leverage to finance it.This is the proposal put on the table by General Nazario Palmieri, commander of the Forestry Carabinieri, this morning in Bologna at the conference organized by the National Academy of Agriculture.Forests, underlines Palmieri, are the main tool against instability and for this reason "they must be managed, maintained and improved. Perhaps the time has come for the community to pay for the ecosystem service provided by forests.According to the commander of the Forestry Carabinieri, therefore, it is necessary to promote "a large extraordinary maintenance plan for the forestry heritage, which is capable of revitalizing and improving our forests and guaranteeing ecosystem services ranging from soil defense to the conservation of water resources, to 'absorption of carbon dioxide in wood production, which is not antithetical to the defense of our forest ecosystems, as long as management is sustainable'.Other countries, Palmieri cites, have taken the path of fiscal leverage for these purposes. New York, for example, “has introduced a tax” to manage forestry and watersheds around the city to guarantee water resources to its inhabitants.Vienna, on the other hand, "bought all the private forests around the city", again to guarantee the management of the forests and springs for the benefit of the citizens.

The commander of the Forestry Carabinieri therefore speaks of a "targeted forestry policy, which the EU must also take charge of, as it is doing. Considering that silvicultural management has economic costs, which are often unbearable for small owners, then incentives must be activated to improve our forests and preserve the territory from the damage resulting from incorrect management of the environment in order to protect the soil, for the benefit of all citizens."

From a hydrogeological point of view, the general recalls, “there is no such thing as zero risk. When 300 millimeters of rain falls in three hours, there is no system that can resist.But we can mitigate its effects by working to maintain the territory 365 days a year.Nature needs to be helped."This is especially true for mountain areas.“We need political, social and economic recognition for the mountain populations – claims Palmieri – under penalty of the inevitable depopulation of that territory”.Ultimately, therefore, “we must reverse course. Now there aren't even the workers capable of carrying out these interventions anymore. The maintenance and management of the territory cannot be improvised."A great deal of "educational and cultural" work is therefore also needed to safeguard the woods, forests and mountain territories.